1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic gaming machine, in particular a lottery gaming machine, having a game server for controlling the game to which at least one gaming apparatus can be connected, wherein the game server has at least one game ticket block, preferably an electronic game ticket block, including a plurality of preferably electronic game tickets which are each individually characterized by a winning number combination, wherein the at least one gaming apparatus can be connected to a credit store associated with it which can be loaded by an input apparatus and including a ticket purchasing apparatus for purchasing a game ticket while reducing the credit stored in the credit store.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lottery gaming machines are known in various forms, also in electronic embodiments. Lottery gaming apparatus are shown, for example, in documents DE 295 16 968 U1 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,295. EP 0 639 998 also shows a similar gaming apparatus.
In the case of the named DE 295 16 968 U1, the lottery gaming machine is, however, limited to reading in a gaming ticket completed in writing by a scanner, to paying a stake in the form of cash or cashlessly by plastic money by a money input apparatus and to conversely paying out at least smaller winning amounts. The incentive to play and the entertainment value of the apparatus are, however, very limited. On the other hand, the data management, the determination of the winning lottery tickets and the display and paying out of the winnings are complicated since as a rule for this purpose the data read in by scanner have to be transformed, the winning numbers or symbols have to be checked separately and associated with the tickets or players and the paying out can optionally only be made with a long time delay.